Sunday, June 12, 2011

Pentecostal, Baptist, Episcopalian

In the life of the Church, today is a very special day.Today is Pentecost, the great feast that takes place fifty days after Easter.We celebrate how the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples on that first Pentecost to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

Today is also special because we are celebrating the baptism of Debbie Williams.She has made the choice to wash in the waters of baptism and commit herself to Christ. We have much to celebrate!

In the truest sense of the words, we are both a Pentecostal church and a Baptist church.As Episcopalians, we are not tied to one celebration or the other.

We are a Pentecostal church because we believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the followers of Jesus to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth.We are a Baptist church because we believe the followers of Jesus, you and I, are still being inspired by the Holy Spirit through baptism.

St. Alban’s is neither a Pentecostal nor a Baptist church.We are both.Put simply, we are Christians.We are followers of Jesus who are inspired by the Holy Spirit to do the work of ministry.